By Dante Nelson, Sports Talk Philly Staff Writer 
The Philadelphia 76ers lost to the Boston Celtics 113-96. The Sixers were showing signs of being blown out in the first quarter, but a terrible 3rd quarter where they lost their shooting ability to shoot is what ultimately did them in. Ben Simmons led the way in scoring with 15 points. Markelle Fultz added 12 points. Seven Celtics were in double figures, led by Semi Ojeleye with 16 points.
It was a rough first half for the Sixers. Very rough. Last time they faced the Celtics, they shot very well, even better than the Celtics, and still lost. So, when you can't shoot and the Celtics still shoot as well as they did last time, this is the kind of game you get. The only thing that was really keeping the Sixers in last game was their three point shooting. This time, by the half, the Sixers were shooting 16.7 percent. They were shooting as poor as 11.1 percent at one point.
The Sixers looked like they had no chance in this game. There were some slight roster differences between the two games, but it was still surprising to see the Sixers get handled as much as they did.
All in all, the Celtics' defense looked good in the first half. They made sure the Sixers wouldn't shoot well this time. Then again, they were playing without a couple of shooters. Robert Covington and JJ Redick were not playing, so they lost some spacing. Also, you have to think the Sixers were not going to shoot that well as we saw on Friday. This was simply a more realistic game with the roster on hand. The Celtics, instead, were the much better shooters from the perimeter. They were shooting 46.7 percent from long range.
While the three point shooting was very different, ultimately, the entire field goal percentage was not too far apart. The Sixers shot 34.9 while the Celtics were shooting 39.6.
An issue from the first meeting between the teams showed up again: Rebounding. The Sixers allowed quite a number of offensive rebounds. They allowed 8 in the first half. Ultimately, the Celtics had 13 more rebounds than the Sixers. 13. That's…that's probably not good.
The Sixers trailed by as much as 20 points in the first half. In fact, they trailed by 20 at the half.
What we saw in this game was mostly the same as last time. The biggest difference was the Sixers were not shooting well from long range to keep up with the Celtics so it ended up being a blowout.
The second half of the game started exactly how the Sixers game had been going. Jerryd Bayless had a decent layup attempt that he missed. When you're missing layups…yeah. Saric missed a wide open three pointer. It was just…not good. The Sixers didn't score their first points of the half until 9:36 left in the quarter. But, there's a catch: It was Nik Stauskas free throw. Just one out of two. The first field goal didn't show up until… They missed so many shots in a row it actually hurt. It actually hurt. There was real pain.
The Celtics expanded their lead to 69-40 with 7:52 left in the quarter. The Sixers still didn't have a field goal. Ben Simmons missed an open layup.
Look, I don't know what happened during the second half, but the Sixers were completely non-existent on the scoreboard. The Sixers finally got a field goal with 6:42 left in the third.
Let's just pause here to say that it took almost six minutes into the half to score a basket. If you watched it, it really was an impressive sight to behold. Absolutely impressive. At this point, you changed the channel because the game was over. These are the games where you say "it's only preseason" and that's really the biggest positive.
The 4th quarter was essentially the same deal. The Sixers lost 113-96. The Sixers really lost the game in the 1st quarter as they never recovered. But, that 1st quarter was a tragedy and that sealed their fate.
